


When you're not here with me

by Terrasilvershade



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Peter Parker Has Nightmares, Superfamily, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Nightmares, Tony and Steve are Peter's parents, Tony and Steve are good parents, peter is a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 13:03:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terrasilvershade/pseuds/Terrasilvershade
Summary: Steve has to go on a mission leaving his husband and their son to deal with their nightmares without him. Thankfully video chat exists.





	When you're not here with me

Tony sat up abruptly in his bed, feeling the cold sweat run down his back as his chest heaved. He desperately tried to remember how to breathe, going in and out deeply, and slowly pulled himself out of the panic attack. His hands tightly gripped the sheets and he was glad for the feeling of the smooth silk as it helped ground him when his brain was on overdrive. Usually, Steve was here to help calm him down, to rub his back and tell him it was ok, but Steve was out on a mission, leaving Tony to silently suffer on his own. He never told Steve about these times, the protective super soldier always told him that Tony was more important than any mission but he still couldn’t bring himself to ‘bother’ his partner. Even when tears were streaming down his face and his body was shaking like a leaf.  


Feeling the panic slowly bubble out of his system, Tony ran a hand through his matted hair and sighed, resting his head on his knees and trying to ignore the nauseous feeling in his stomach. He wasn’t sure his legs would be able to carry him to the toilet if his last meal, which was probably longer ago than it should've been, decided to resurface. He closed his tired eyes and took some deep breaths, ignoring how much his hands were still shaking, and blocked the memories of his most recent nightmare with happy thoughts of Steve and their son Peter.  


After a few minutes in his ‘happy place’, Tony regained enough strength to stand up and begin walking to the kitchen to get some coffee, accepting that he wasn't going to get any more sleep that night.  


As he turned down the hallway he saw that the kitchen light was on. Nobody else was in the compound but he and Peter; Steve was out on the mission with Nat and Clint, Rhodey was busy overseas with PR bs, and Thor was up in Asgard doing who knows what, so there was only one possibility.  


Peter was sitting at the kitchen counter with a half-eaten bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream in front of him. He didn't seem to notice Tony come in, just continued staring into his ice cream with bloodshot eyes and hugged his arms close to his chest. It wasn't until Tony tapped him on the shoulder that the 7-year-old realized he wasn't alone.  


Unfortunately, he wasn't really focusing on his surroundings and kinda went into ninja fighting mode as soon as Tony’s hand touched him. He leaped over the counter with incredible speed and landed on the wall, ready to shoot webs at his attacker if he needed to. He was tense for a few moments and then he looked into his father's eyes and sheepishly climbed back onto the floor, trying to ignore the mess of ice cream and broken bowl on the floor.  


“Sorry Dad, I uh, I thought-” Tony didn't let him finish before wrapping his son in his arms, holding him tight until the boy began to cry again. He grabbed Tony’s shirt and buried his face in it, sobbing so hard that his entire body shook with every breath. 

Tony just held him. He had hoped Peter would be spared from the nightmares but unfortunately, it was impossible given their line of work. They never told him all the details but he was a smart boy, he knew what it meant for them to walk out that door. That’s why Captain America and Iron Man no longer went on missions together: if something went wrong they didn't want Peter to be alone. Both Tony and Steve had lost their parents and neither of them wanted Peter to experience that.  


They stayed like that, kneeling on the kitchen floor in each others embrace, for what seemed like hours until Peter pulled away and rubbed his eyes on the sleeve of his dinosaur pajamas.  


“Wh-when is Papa coming home?” He asked with a quivering voice.  


“Soon buddy, very soon.” Tony kissed him on the forehead, gently running his hands through Peter’s hair. He whimpered in response and then pressed his face back into Tony’s shoulder.  


“Do you want to talk about what happened?”  


“It was so scary,” Peter mumbled through his tears. He was trying to control his breathing as Tony had done earlier but his voice was still coming out in short squeaky bursts.  


“Papa was ambushed. He started fighting all the bad guys but then-then he-and-” Another torrent of tears came and he clung to Tony like a lifeline. “I was there but I couldn’t help him and then he got shot and he screamed and there was so much blood and he stopped moving and-and-”  


“Shh. Petey its ok.” Tony whispered soothingly. “Your Papa is just fine. He’s Captain America remember? Nothing can beat Captain America.” Peter whined and buried his face deeper in Tony’s shoulder. The little boy still hasn't stopped shaking. Poor thing. At this rate, he’d be crying all night long.  
Just then, Tony had an idea.  


“JARVIS?”  


“Yes, sir?”  


“Call Steve and put it on speaker.” Tony may have felt guilty calling Steve to calm him down but this was for Peter, and who better to say that Captain America was alive and well then the man himself?  
Peter was silent and still while the phone rang. He counted one ring, two rings, three rings. By five rings Peter’s heart sank. Maybe his Papa was too busy or maybe his dream was real and he actually was in-  


“Hello? Tony?” Before Tony could say anything, Peter climbed over his shoulder, which he was a bit too big to do so, and sat right next to the projected video call, almost touching it.  


“Papa?” Peter didn't take his eyes off Steve for even a millisecond. After looking at Peter’s bloodshot eyes, puffy face, and overall weary appearance, Steve pieced together what had happened and spoke in his signature soothing tone,  


“I’m ok buddy, see?” He gestured to himself, showing off his dirty but blood-free uniform and that he still had all four limbs. “Those guys were no match for Captain America.” He struck a pose and that got a laugh out of Peter, who seemed to be more at ease.  


“Did the mission go ok Cap?”  


“Nobody got injured if that’s what you’re asking. Some old buildings got damaged and Ross is making a big deal out of it, otherwise, we’d be home already.” Tony grumbled under his breath at the mention of the infamous Secretary of State who, for some reason, had made it his mission to paint the Avengers in the worst light possible. He was glad Steve was dealing with him; Ross hated Tony the most and tended to push his buttons whenever they crossed paths and that usually ended with someone getting punched.  


“Good luck with that.”  


“If this keeps up much longer, I’m not the one who’ll be needing luck. An angry Natasha’s worse than the Hulk.” Peter laughed and Tony cracked a smile; hell hath no fury like a pissed off Russian.  


“Is Auntie Nat gonna punch somebody?”  


“I don’t know anyone who can stop her from doing what she wants, but I don’t think she’s at that point yet. Yet.” There was a murmur offscreen from Nat herself and Steve added, “She says she’s got thirty more minutes of patience, so we’ll be done by then one way or another.” Tony was already counting down the seconds until he had his Steve back in his arms again.  
Now that he knew that Steve wasn't in danger and he’d be home soon, Peter was infinitely calmer and his body slowly began to remember just how late it was. He gave one big yawn and then crawled back into Tony’s arms.  


“You ready to go back to bed bud?” Peter nodded sleepily.  


“You’ll come to say hi when you get back, right Papa?”  


“Of course Peter. Goodnight and I hope you have sweet dreams.” Steve smiled sweetly as Tony picked up their tired son.  


“Night-night Papa,” Peter mumbled as he desperately tried to keep his eyes open. Tony ended the call before heading back upstairs to Peter’s bedroom. He was pretty much asleep by the time that Tony had put him into bed. He tucked his boy in and kissed him goodnight but before he left a tiny voice asked,  


“Dad? Can you hand me my Captain America plushie?” Smiling, he went to the shelf and grabbed the toy in question, an old Captain America plush doll that Peter had gotten for his third birthday. He handed Peter the doll and he hugged it tightly before laying back down under the covers. No more nightmares tonight.


End file.
